The First Villain From The ‘Titans’ TV Series Has Been Revealed

WB’s ‘Titans’ are assembling with Brenton Thwaites as Dick Grayson/Nightwing, Anna Diop as Starfire and Teagan Croft as Raven, with Alan Ritchson and Minka Kelly as guest-stars Hawk & Dove. (Beast Boy is also supposed to be a core cast member, but his casting has yet to be announced.) Now comes the question of who these aspiring heroes will join forces to battle. It doesn’t help that The CW has already raided their rogues gallery to pilfer their most famous foes, Deathstroke, Brother (Sebastian) Blood and the H.I.V.E. Even Damien Darhk was a Titans foe in the comics, albeit in a form almost unrecognizable from Neal McDonough’s portrayal. Who is left? Well, it turns out the TV team won’t be facing a proper Titans villain at all.

These two casting descriptions reveal the first enemy the ‘Titans’ will face, plus an innocent bystander that hints at the first storyline:

The Acolyte – Male. African-American 40-50. Confident. The villain of our story. He is after Rachel and her powers, trying to kidnap her after he murders her mother.

Apparently, since Brother Blood was unavailable, due to his use on ‘Arrow’, another similar but more obscure character is being substituted, The Acolyte. You’ll be forgiven for not recognizing this obscure DC fiend, who appeared in a single two-part story published in 1999, in the first ‘Young Justice’ comic book, not to be confused with animated series of the same name or the comic book tie-in based on it.

In his only story, Acolyte claimed to be an immortal demonic entity seeking to dethrone God and replace Him with a new deity, initially the Hindi goddess Kali. His plan involved hypnotizing kids nationwide with booby-trapped plush toys called Hugga-Tugga-Thuggees, a parody of the Teletubbies. By the end of this tale, he was revealed to be an ordinary, delusional human being who had simply disguised himself with blue makeup, horns, and other accouterments in order to pass as a demonic being. To date, Acolyte has yet to resurface. Well… until now.

Rachel Roth is an alias used by Raven in more recent comics, so this reveals that she is Acolyte’s goal. Considering that the TV shows take quite a few liberties with the comic book source material, it’s possible that their version of this character will actually have some sort of demonic ties, possibly to Raven’s father, the powerful Trigon.

Although they weren’t originally affiliated in the comics, in more recent stories Brother Blood and Trigon have been connected. Since Blood is off-limits, Acolyte could be used in his stead.

What kind of tone would you like to see ‘Titans’ adopt? Does the idea of demonic foes intrigue you?

‘Titans’ is expected to premiere next year on Warner Brothers’ upcoming DC Comics streaming service.

Jason Motes

Jason's earliest memory is of watching 'Batman,' followed shortly by a memory of playing Batman & Robin with a friend, which entailed running outside in just their underwear and towels as capes. When adults told them they couldn't run around outside in their underwear, both boys promptly whipped theirs off and ran around in just capes. Jason's father gamely agreed to read him comic books as bedtime stories instead of 'Snow White.' (Super Friends being his favorite.) Jason saw all of the original Star Wars movies (and Indiana Jones and Superman and Star Trek...) in the theaters. Yes, he is old. And grew up in the most GEEKTASTIC decade ever, the 80s, devouring a steady diet of GI Joe, Transformers, Masters of the Universe, Princess of Power and (best of all) Jem! (It totally counts as sci fi! They had a sentient computer that projected holograms!) Jason has studied literature, journalism, film history and has a degree in creative writing (and a minor in psychology) from the University of South Alabama. He has worked as a technical writer and proofreader. These days, most of his creative energy goes into his blog and writing for this site! He lives with the cutest puppies ever.